Next time you are out looking for a Search Engine Optimization expert to provide website optimization services to your company one of the most critical things you should do is your research!

You need to understand what a real Search Engine Optimization expert is supposed to do for you and what you should NEVER EVER ask for them to do.

For example, a real Search Optimization Expert will tell you IMMEDIATELY that SEO is NOT an overnight boost in traffic.  They will never insinuate that such results are even possible.  They will also be clear that they cannot guarantee an outcome for you – because they do NOT have control over the search engines and how they rank or place you.

What you are paying for with a real search engine optimization expert is honest effort, long term progress and  growing trust from the search engines. When this is accomplished you will start to see:

• Keyword research results that reveal new keywords to target
• Site change suggestions from your SEO expert that would result in better keyword targeting from your website
• Possible implementation or project management of said changes
• New visitors to your website based on those keywords
• External promotion (marketing and links) of your updated pages, with emphasis on those keyphrases
• And gradual climbs of your websites positioning up the search engines

Ideally this will also result in more leads for your business!

Your search engine marketing expert will tell you that keywords and link building will always be the most important part of building your online presense. And they will be correct.  They will never employ “superficial boosting” tactics to get your links.  And they will never build links without doing the right research and site changes if necessary.

Among the strategies suggested above, your Search Optimization Expert will most likely write keyword targeted landing pages (such as articles, post them to your website or blog (to attract and engage your audience as well as earn trust from them)).  They might also distribute them on a paced release schedule to relevant media distribution sites, article directories and social networks across the net.  But they will be very selective about what services those are so as to never ever put your website at jeopary.

If or when other sites reference your landing page content or pick  your articles up and post them to theirs, this brings you a new link from each site the content/article is posted on…it also builds your brand awareness.  It is authentic and organic.  This is the ONLY way to go.

Then when other sites look for sites like yours to to LINK TO as popular sites – and yours comes up in their searches, they will also link to you (that’s the most ideal situation as those links are truly one way, not reciprocal and again, authentically placed by site owners).

A real Search Engine Optimization expert will also look at building links for you from relevant social bookmarking sites as well as blogs and answers sites. After all, we are living in a highly connected world now and these sources of traffic are important.

In addition to this your SEO expert may still seek out sites that have existing links pages to see if they will link to you but they will try wherever possible to avoid reciprocal links and will never pay for links unless they are advertising links (which are seen differently by the search engines based on how they are coded).

Of course, there are many other authentic methods to acquiring links from other websites and establishing trust with the search engines. What is mentioned above is simple the industry standard.  Very few SEO specialists will tell you their biggest secrets to doing what they do above and beyond the standard because part of being authentic and true is not to do what everyone else is doing (and therefor to avoid letting others know what you are doing as well, so that your efforts don’t flag the masses either).

If you do expect overnight traffic, you risk getting severely penalized by the search engines like J.C. Penny has.  This is absolutely the worst thing you can do!  And any SEO services provider that tells you otherwise is just after your money and they really do not care about your business at all.